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8/19/2019 understand world via art
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8958586
How might we use art to understand people’s ways of seeing and
understanding the world?
In order to know how art can be used as a tool to comprehend how people
see and understand the world, it is frst vital to assert that while there is no
agreed defnition o what art is, there is no doubt that it is a particular kind o
human action (Morphy & Perkins, 2!"# $he evolution o humans has given
rise to what %delman characteries as higher consciousness ('ewis)illiams,
2*"# $his involves the capacity or language, memory, and that humans
are aware o being conscious# +umans live in particular social, political and
economic contets, and consciousness e-ects how people see their reality,
in terms o past and uture, and act in it by constructing a socially based
selhood ('ewis)illiams, 2*"# )e can conclude that art is a product o
human consciousness, by .uestioning why certain entities are represented,
and how they have been represented# I use represent loosely as not all art
ob/ects have the intention to look like eisting entities, such as those created
by the 0belam o 1ew uinea, and instances where representational images
are orbidden (3orge, 456"# $his eample o representational images
demonstrates that artworks echo an artist7s social contet# $his point is
developed by noticing that the unction, construal and eecution o art is
sub/ect to di-erences over time and space, or eample the use as a hunting
8/19/2019 understand world via art
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magic device in the Palaeolithic %ra, to fate images o another world in
shamanic art, or to solely please and decorate ('eakey, 4558"# 0s
anthropologists, in the scope o art, it is undamental to see the etent that
artists are driven by their social contets, and how social relationships have
contributed to the production o art#
3ocusing on the visual arts, the scope o this essay is situated in the varying
perceptions and understandings that people have o emale body# $he body
is a site o image construction and a-ects how people interact with the
world# 9ody image is simply the way our body looks and is commonly defned
as an individual7s satisaction with their physical sel (sie, shape, general
appearance: ;ash &
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argue that artworks, in a metaphorical sense, are doorways into artist7s
social, economic and political contet# I shall do this by demonstrating that
the skills and styles an artist uses are chosen to mimic his perception and
understanding o the world that he is part o# =imilarly to the act that we
cannot literally see into people7s minds and completely comprehend how
they view the world, art will never give us a ull picture o how an artist sees
and understands the world#
9aandall7s concept >the period eye> describes how art can be used as a
record to see and understand people7s sociality# +e states that to be able to
create and comprehend an artwork, >one brings to the picture a mass o
inormation and assumptions drawn rom general eperience### ?thereore@
our comprehension depends on what we bring to the picture> (45AA:B8"# $he
inormation brought to an image is the repertoire o visual skills that allow
individuals to structure and draw meanings rom artworks (45AA:B"#
0ccordingly, viewers use inormation they have gained through eperience,
and assume relevant, to draw inerences and interpret an artwork# =imilarly
to how the inormation used is derived rom the viewer7s contet, artworks
themselves are derived rom the artists contet# In other words, artworks are
created in the style that relates to the cognitive skills people have# $his is
due to two reasons# 3irstly, and mainly, because the artist is also >a member
o the society he works or, and shares ?the viewers@ visual eperience and
habitat> (45AA:*"# =econdly, the artists must be aware o his >publics visual
8/19/2019 understand world via art
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capacity> as people7s tastes are mediated by their cognitive skills, and we
en/oy >our own eercise o skill> (9aandall, 45AA:B*,*"#
$he artworks produced in the ancient reek era ocused on aesthetic appeal,
but also echoed concepts o reek sociality# $he ancient reek sculptor
Praiteles depicted the goddess 0phrodite, let, with a uller fgure, a rounded
stomach and wide hips, shielding hersel in a cocked hip and slightly
hunched pose# 0lternatively, nude male fgures in ancient reek sculptures
are mesopmorphic, with nothing evading the eye# 9y adding contet it
becomes apparent why men and women were depicted di-erently and how
their social contet was reCected through their art# In ancient reece, there
was a gender divide# 0ristotle demonstrates this in Politics, >when one rules
and the other is ruled we endeavour to create a di-erence o outward
orms### the relation o the male to the emale is o this kind, but there the
ine.uality is permanent> (B8 9;"# $his ine.uality arose because in ancient
reece, >the culturally constructed terms o emininity and masculinity###
depended upon their socially assigned di-erences>, meaning that women
and men were ecluded to act in the same spheres (=almon, 4556:2"# )e
can see 9aandall7s concept take lie throughout ancient reek sculptures#
$he male physi.ue was idealised, and artists >?brought@ together rom many
models the most beautiul eatures o each > (Denophon, *9;"#
0lternatively, women were portrayed in their naturalistic orm as emale
modesty in ancient reece was highly valued, and women could not act in
8/19/2019 understand world via art
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the sphere o power that the nude male orm presented#
)hile the naturalistic orm o the emale nude was not
highly idealised like the male nude sculptures, it still
nonetheless showed how women should look# In ancient
reece the ideal emale body was one o a uller fgure,
akin to Praiteles sculpture# $his particular ideal
demonstrated wealth and a higher chance o conceiving
(0ndrew, 4556"# $hus, ancient reece7s belies about
male and emale di-erence maniested into its artworks
as the artist was a part o that social contet# 0ncient
reek artists shared the same eperiences o assigned di-erences and
brought this inormation into the creation o art#
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body very di-erently to conventional 0ustralian culture# In most societies,
such as the west, the human orm is depicted with a human7s most defning
eatures: a head, torso, and two arms and legs# +owever, it is common or a
Eshape to represent a whole person by both )arlpiri children and adults
(;o, 242:442"#
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other species> (=childkrout, 2*:BB"# $his elucidates di-ering
understanding7s o the body even though representing the body as a stick
man,
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understanding o socially shared mental images o what is signifcant and
believed, and this agreement is made through language# 9y doing this,
artists in di-ering social contets create art that people would notice and
understand what it would mean, which conse.uently reinorces values
because seeing establishes our place in the world# +owever, what is
signifcant and believed in social contets does not always determine how
people think and thereore what art people will create, alternatively it allows
the chance o people to surrender to common belies and, or, resist rom
people7s particular social, political and economic contet# $he development
o higher consciousness, that being our memory and awareness o being
conscious, allowed or the possibility o resistance# $his possibility entails
that the production o artworks be endowed with alternative motives to those
already eisting#
I the signifcant and believed ideas in a social contet determined how
people thought and acted in the world then the depiction o the human fgure
would not have altered, however it has, and this demonstrates that the
motives behind the reason or a certain depiction have changed# $o be able
to understand, via art, the motives o an artist7s social contet that drive the
production o an artwork, it is necessary to draw our attention to the
processes o signication that occur in works o art# $he signifcation o an
artwork are its conveyed meanings# )e attain meanings through signs
because signs communicate things to us# GH =haughnessy (4555" stated that
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the method semiotics asserts that sign systems work through certain rules
and structures and result in the ability or meanings to be communicated# +e
states this can aid the understanding o what is being communicated in
artworks by simply asking >what is there> (4555:!6"# 9y comparing the
di-ering depictions o the emale nude created in %urope I shall demonstrate
that these two di-ering styles have been produced rom a resistance o what
was commonly believed and signifcant o the time# I believe this is driven
through eperience, as I have shown previously through 9aandall,
eperience is central to the art that is created# I shall suggest that pre
eisting motives that were communicated in previous art orms, such as the
9aro.ue period, were not what all %uropean7s were eperiencing# Esing %gon
=chiele as an eample I shall show that di-erent mental images and
eperiences lead to new artworks and styles because the motives altered,
there were eperiences that were not being depictures in art#
$he 9aro.ue art ollowed rom the Jenaissance# )hile 9aro.ue art o nudes
similarly aimed to depict the ideal body image, it was not preoccupied with
the study o mathematics as a means o constructing the ideal emale orm#
9aro.ue art reashioned the classical ideal, the signifed, which was
conveyed in through the signs o ample emales with rippling Cesh# Jubens
was known or presenting women o this era with generous fgures in his
paintings# )hile some contest that Jubens7 art glorifes larger women, the
act remains that this sie would be portrayed in many nudes o the 9aro.ue
8/19/2019 understand world via art
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era, and was regarded as ashionable, and was the ideal fgure (Koda, 2!"#
$his created the ideal body image in 9aro.ue art where there was no
celebration o human variety (=orabella, 2A"# 3oucault stated >this political
investment o the body is bound up in accordance with comple reciprocal
relations with its economic use> (mirror
was oten used as a symbol o the vanity o women ###in treating hersel### a
sight> (4562:84"# $his illustrates that women were depicted and art arranged
in art >to display it to the man looking at the picture> (9erger, 4562:88"# $his
demonstrates the social relations that held during the 9aro.ue art period
were those dominated by the male gae (Josenthal, 28"# 9oth the sign o a
deCected gae and the proportion o the body taking up the rame signifes
an ideal display or men# $his was the cultural connotation and
understanding o why the nude was depicted o the time: the nude had to be
conventionalied in order or it to be represented (4562:8B"# $he portrayal o
the emale nude, i wanting to gain acceptance rom 9aro.ue society, had to
be constructed with the aim o arousing the viewer, and thus must conorm
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to the accepted standards o how a women should,
ideally look# )oman has a submissive position in
the time o 9aro.ue art and maniested in its
construal# $his occurred because the >une.ual
relationship ?was@ deeply embedded in the culture,
and was the structure o consciousness o many
women> (9erger, 4562:!B"# 9eing a part o the
social contet and drawing rom his eperience,
Juben was able to depict societies ideas around how the emale body was to
be understood through his art#
G7 =haughnessy states that connotations o the time are culturally shared
and dependent on cultural knowledge (4555:!8"# +e continues claiming that
cultural knowledge is a prere.uisite in understanding art through semiotics
as it allows the interaction between the sign and the values o a culture to be
viewed: >being aware o these connotations will make us aware o the
cultural meanings in images>(4555:!6"# $his has precedence as without
having cultural knowledge about the )arlpiri, gaining an insight into what
their art represents about how they understand the body will not be possible#
+owever, G7=haughnessy claims that individual connotations are specifc and
whilst they a-ect how we see and understand the world, because they are
not shared, they are not useul in understanding o semiotics between art
signs and values o culture# %gon =chiele7s artworks o the emale nude act
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as a dissent o this view as a new style in its entirety ormed out o his own
individual connotations# I argue that individual connotations and eperiences
are a primary key in the resistance o social contets and push new styles o
art and ultimately new representations o the body# 0s $racey %mins eplains
>=chiele appeared to be intensely looking at himsel> (248"#
!emale "ude, %gon =chiele #emi$"ude
Girl% &eclinging %gon =chiele#
0s aorementioned, the signifcation o an artwork rests in its conveyed
meanings# )e attain meanings through signs because signs communicate
things to us# GH =haughnessy (4555" stated that the method semiotics
asserts that sign systems work through certain rules and structures and
result in the ability or meanings to be communicated# +e states this can aid
the understanding o what is being communicated in artworks by simply
asking >what is there> (4555:!6"# 9y comparing the di-ering depictions o
the emale nude created in %urope I shall demonstrate that these two
8/19/2019 understand world via art
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di-ering styles have been produced as a result o a resistance to common
belies and what was signifcant# I believe this is driven through eperience,
as I have shown previously through 9aandall, eperience is central to the
art that is created and particularly individual eperiences# I shall suggest that
preeisting motives that were communicated in previous art orms were not
what all %uropean7s were eperiencing and thereby led to new art styles#
$hrough signifcation and eperience people who were looking at these new
works knew what they were meaning#
=chiele7s art demonstrates that his motives were not determined by his
social contet, and ultimately impacted on the art he produced sparking
controversy# $hese motives were those o resistance to what was believed
and signifcant in how the body should be depicted in his social contet# +e
rebelled against the rigid character o naturalistic drawings o the body and
perspective drawing (=teiner,2:28"# +is epressive style and use o hard,
dark and distorted lines were signs used to signiy a truth o a hidden
underworld# +is art moved away rom an idealied worldview in %uropean
society as what portrayed in subse.uent artworks did not represent all social,
political and economic relations o %uropean people# =chiele lived in prewar
%urope and depicted a reality that eisted away rom the public eye,
challenging social norms and acting as a resistance to the idealied approach
relating to the nude and conventional norms o beauty that were bodies o
volume and sot lines# 0lthough the compositions and poses o the bodies he
8/19/2019 understand world via art
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depicted were seually direct, it was less about the gae o the male,
because the bodies drawn were thin, gaunt and angular with unusual use o
colouring# $his demonstrates a change in reciprocal relations between men
and women as they were not conventionalised or depicted to have the ideal
body thus evoking emotion# $he thin fgures were not depicting as a new
ideal but were used as a sign to communicate that people were living in
poverty and conse.uently were malnourished and had health problems in
prewar %urope (wingenberger, 244:4!"# =chiele lived in a socially and
psychologically charged atmosphere and this maniests in his art as those
were the mental images he eperienced and thus communicated in his art#
+is own individual connotations and eperiences allowed or the emergence
o this art style that mimicked the reality o certain social, political and
economic contets via the techni.ue o stripping away the ideal emale nude
depicted or men in art in prior art styles#
=chiele7s depiction ocusing on the social contet o prewar %urope that he
was eperiencing had not been represented in art by previous works# 0s a
conse.uence, what many were eperiencing was only a shadow o a true
reality# Plato used the allegory o the cave to argue that the creation o art
may present itsel as something, but there is always a deeper or hidden
reality that is not observable (Plato,B8 9;"# $hus, the art that was produced
by =chiele7s subse.uent artists were not showing other political, social and
economic happenings in %urope# 0s 3oucault stated the body was used to
8/19/2019 understand world via art
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deploy certain political and economic agendas# $his argument encourages us
to not accept things as they appear to be, however Plato uses this to argue
that there is an ob/ective truth o reality (Plato,B8"# I disagree that there is
an ob/ective truth o reality as it is through people7s senses that individuals
come to know the world# +owever Plato7s point that there is more to what we
observe highlights the act that art doesn7t always open a doorway into how
people view and understand their world# )e cannot assume that we are
literally seeing into another persons world, as this essay has shown, cultural
knowledge and specifcally eperience is crucial in being able to truly
understand how people view their world# G7 =haughnessy draws attention to
this point stating that when we look at art >what we are seeing is not 7reality7
but signs and signifers that aim to represent the real world> (4555:!!"#
=ontag argues against the interpretation o art and the importance placed
on the meaning o an artwork7s content (455"# =he argues against the
necessity o a >conscious act o the mind which illustrates a certain code,
certain 7rules7 o interpretation>, what G7 =haughnessy provides a method o#
$his leads us away rom the idea that a work o art is primarily its content,
she claims, and the ocus o the idea behind the art is stiCing the sensuous
aspects when we encounter a work o art# +er reasoning against
interpretation is that seeing what art is 7saying7 sets up >a shadow world o
7meanings7> and >tames the work o art> as she states that great artworks
have transcendental power to e-ect people, having the ability, or eample,
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to >make you eel nervous> when one does not interpret art (455"# )hilst I
agree that looking at an artwork that you lack an academic understanding o
can result in an aesthetic e'perience% I think it is implausible to say such an
eperience is eclusive to individuals without knowledge on what it is they
are viewing# In act, I take the view that academic interpretation, which
draws out possible social, political and economic contets conveyed in
artworks does not stiCe our sensibilities and can in act heighten our
aesthetic eperience by knowing what it is saying# Plato contends that art is
a shadow o a true reality, and that we need to be aware that our belies may
not always be a reCection o the reality, concluding that art isnHt useul# I
believe however that artists aim to represent a transcendent in their
artworks# )hat they produce is driven by their eistence, by their motives,
whether conventionalised or not, it is true to their reality# =ontag believes
that we save art rom Plato7s view i we stop interpreting it as we will /ust
ocus on its capacity to a-ect us instead o its meaning (455"# +owever, it
does not seem that we solve the argument that Plato proposes against art# I
art were proposed without initial interpretation we would be presented with
vast amounts o interpretations which may hold no real relevance at all#
Multiple interpretations arise as shown rom eperience and lack o cultural
knowledge due to signs and signifers# I believe that these interpretations
arise when one reCects inwards and draws rom own personal eperience to
attach meanings o artworks to our emotions, memories and thoughts# 0s
individual connotations are specifc it allows people the reedom to pro/ect
8/19/2019 understand world via art
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their own viewpoint o artworks# Gn the other hand, this viewpoint is not
eclusive to simply /ust artworks where an interpretation is given, it is
possible that interpretation can intrude in on your perspective o it and a-ect
how one eels, but i =ontag states that >great art should make you nervous>
then great art should surely still achieve that as it has been interpreted
(455"# 9y being given an interpretation on it, or eample political works can
make the work stronger and ground it or you# Eltimately, art should
challenge your views and epand your thinking and by understanding the
conveyed meaning it is more likely or that to have an e-ect on you# 1ot to
mention this people interpret without having academia do it or them# 0s
most contemporary art ocuses on ideas, it is inherent that interpretations
consistently and naturally occur# I people didn7t interpret through semiotics
and connotations what conveyed meanings were represented in artworks it
would stay rather stagnant#
$he 24st century is saturated with social media and advertising and
constantly signifes what the ideal body is# G7 =haughnessy
shows that the media is an >agent o socialisation, ### and
communicates ideologies> (4555:B*5", as it communicates
ideologies through >appearing to o-er pleasure and power>
(4555:B!4" but ultimately goes into a >traditional view o
eminine roles and ideal eminity>(4555:B!8"# $he recent
8/19/2019 understand world via art
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advert on the let, applying G7
=haughnessy, o-ers that i you have a
certain body type, then you have the
pleasure and power o wearing a bikini
on the beach because o the way you
look# $he advert implies that women
must have a particular body shape that complies with conception o beauty
to be able to wear a bikini# 3eminism established itsel in the beginning o
the 45s and sought to understand the long history o woman7s oppression
and aimed to alter gender roles and identities in social contets# 3eminists
.uestion the power relations o men and women that result in these adverts
are aimed at women, more so than men# =imilarly to art movements and
time periods prior to the 24st century, artists produce works to change body
ideals# It is clear that rom the time o 9aro.ue paintings up until this advert
that traditional roles and power relations have not shited and still eist
despite artworks rebellion against ideals#
0bove is an image I drew to convey the meaning that G7 =haughnessy
describes# I have signifed man7s ideal over woman# I positioned the man
coming out o the woman as it is our bodies which are a site where we
process images and the emale body has standards that are embedded in
western culture created by men#
8/19/2019 understand world via art
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)e come to know the world through our senses and in our mind(s eye
interpret our social contet, and via our eperiences that are both commonly
and uni.uely shared to us# =imilarly to how our bodies take in the
surrounding world and we have the choice to agree and accept these values,
the uptake o women adopting the body ideal works similarly# 0s sight is
located rom our body and is how we come to know, it is unstoppable when
looking at images o bodies to deter away rom a reCection o our own# I take
this to be the case because, and to paraphrase 9erger, the male gae is
embedded in our culture and consciousness that we look at ourselves as
men do (4562"# I believe that this is a determinant or why ideals pertain
throughout time in western culture and an ongoing tension between
surrender or resist to body ideals#
I have demonstrated that art is a product o its time# 0rtists produce works
dependent upon the their eperiences in their social contet and through
semiotics their productions open a doorway into their world# $hroughout
history the development o the nude articulate concepts o the sel, others
and social values and belies and ultimately it7s representation and
understanding has constantly transormed# 0rt is used as an open doorway
and through semiotics and the period eye it aids viewer to see how people
viewed and understood their world#
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Word count
*6!4
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